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Editorial: Where's the 'task force'?

Residents of Escambia County, pay close attention to this moment. It is a loaded moment — both instructional to our future and symbolic of our much-mired past. Because now two months after the destructive flooding that ripped apart our area, politicians in Escambia County — who have done little more than talk about the problem — can't even commit to an actual meeting.

Editorial: Where's the 'task force'?

Residents of Escambia County, pay close attention to this moment. It is a loaded moment – both instructional to our future and symbolic of our much-mired past. Because now two months after the destructive flooding that ripped apart our area, politicians in Escambia County have done little more than

talk about the problem.

Conservatives, take note: Here is a glaring, real-life contrast between government and the private sector. Downtown business owners who suffered damage are rightfully questioning future investment under the threat of continued flooding. Ken Ford, director and chief executive officer of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, halted a major expansion of the downtown headquarters due to it. But Ford – a man paid to be a critical thinker and a problem solver – also took action toward a solution.

In the absence of real progress from local government, Ford scheduled renown flood-control specialist J. David Waggonner from New Orleans to present a lecture at IHMC's downtown office July 16. Taking a cue from Ford's lead, Pensacola City Council Member Brian Spencer then scheduled Waggonner to appear at a "symposium" about water management on July 18, specifically for city and county officials, as they are tasked with forming a unified plan of action.

But the first reaction from the county as reported by the PNJ's Terry Strickland on Tuesday was that commissioners couldn't commit. Public Information Manager Kathleen Dough-Castro said Monday that the stormwater symposium had not been scheduled and that "the article in the paper was the first we had heard of it." Castro added that staff was scrambling to make it happen.

We find it hard to accept that commissioners are so busy that they couldn't schedule an important event that's more than two weeks away. And frankly, we doubt many private citizens – who adapt and improvise constantly to accommodate daily schedules to husbands, wives, kids, pets, work, kids, exercise, recreation, kids and sleep – would accept such a claim, either.

Fortunately, as of Tuesday afternoon, Councilman Brian Spencer confirmed that commissioners had gotten with the program and committed to the symposium on July 18. Still, the initial response is frustrating.

Our economic health depends on swift action toward a fix. Yet what should have been a clear priority, for commissioners, was initially regarded as a scheduling conflict.

Pensacola and Escambia County need to get their collective act together. As of yet, the stormwater "task force" does not exist. Meanwhile, our Santa Rosa neighbors are starting to make us look bad. And folks on this side of Pensacola Bay have noticed. "Look at what Gulf Breeze has done," restaurateur Joe Abston told the PNJ's Rob Johnson. "They've already formed their task force" and had initial action approved by the City Council. Johnson noted that "in fact, Gulf Breeze had a ribbon-cutting for its first flood-control project, replacing and upgrading pumps at stormwater stations, replacing inadequate drain pipes and installing a new hydraulic generator."

That's real action. And locals aren't the only ones who notice it. Tallahassee is watching, too, which may be why Gulf Breeze got funding for repairs from a $10 million oil spill grant last week. There is BP money to be had, and state officials have deemed stormwater infrastructure an appropriate use. But when guys as smart as Sen. Don Gaetz are keeping a watchful eye on the purse strings, it's paramount that we at least put up the guise of having local leaders, not local yokels.

Let's get this straight – we're not just calling out the county for this latest lack of urgency. We're calling again on all local officials to get unified. It is the private-sector economy that is most threatened by our broken public infrastructure. When an important, vested member of that private sector, such as IHMC, takes the initiative to find solutions, all government officials are obligated to get it together, get the task force and get to the table.